I.N.D.I.A alliance crack to deepen further as Congress eyes SP leaders in UP

Lucknow: With the Congress going all out to woo senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders and offering them nominations in the next general elections, the cracks in the I.N.D.I.A bloc in Uttar Pradesh are only likely to deepen further in the days to come.

The Grand Old Party, which was fighting to remain relevant in India's biggest state and was reduced to a fringe player, indicated that senior SP leader and three-time Lok Sabha MP Ravi Prakash Verma, who resigned from the SP on Friday, was all set to join the Congress.

Verma, who hailed from the electorally influential 'Kurmi' community, wielded considerable influence over the clan, not only on his home turf of Lakhimpur Kheri, but also in the nearby districts, where Kurmi voters had a sizable strength.

Verma's daughter Dr Poorvi Verma, who had contested on the SP ticket from Kheri Lok Sabha seat in 2019 LS polls, was also likely to join the Congress in the next few days.

Sources said that Verma resigned from SP after indications that the party might not field him or his daughter from Kheri seat this time. Congress sources here also hinted that a few more senior SP leaders were likely to switch loyalty in the days to come.

While Congress leaders here rejected assertions that the party was trying to 'poach' leaders of its I.N.D.I.A alliance partner, SP leaders termed the attempts as ''against the coalition dharma''.

''We don't poach leaders of other parties but our doors are open for any one who believes in our ideology,'' remarked a senior UP Congress leader here when queried in this regard while speaking to DH on Saturday. A senior SP leader however said that Congress and BJP had the same 'mentality'.

Lucknow based media analyst J P Shukla said that such developments were certain to hit the I.N.D.I.A alliance in UP.

''There appears to be a trust deficit between the Congress and SP in UP,'' he said while speaking to DH.

Earlier, former UP minister and SP leader Omveer Tomar had also joined the Congress. According to the sources in the state Congress, the party was in touch with many other prominent Muslim leaders from the western UP region and was trying to bring them into its fold ahead of the LS polls.

The development came close on the heels of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav's remarks that his party will contest 65 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state leaving the rest for its alliance partners, which also include the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Apna Dal (Krishna Patel). Akhilesh's remarks have come amid the war of words between Congress and SP over seat-sharing formula in the state.

Congress has been insisting on contesting around 20 seats in UP but SP wants to spare only 7-8 seats.

Akhilesh had, a few days back, accused Congress of 'cheating' his party by refusing to have an electoral understanding with SP in the MP assembly polls and also claimed that Congress leaders had a 'tacit' understanding with the BJP.